OBAMA BOTCHED HIS FIRST BIG DECISION

FROM NRO'S THE CORNER:

Classic Noonan [Kathryn Jean Lopez]:

On Biden:

As he speaks, as he goes on and on and spins his long statements, hypotheticals, and free associations—as he demonstrates yet again . . . that he is incapable of staying on the river of a thought, and is constantly lured down tributaries from which he can never quite work his way back—you can see him batting the little paddles of his mind against the weeds, trying desperately to return to the river but not remembering where it is, or where it was going.

Biden [Mark R. Levin]:

I think Biden is a great pick ... for the McCain campaign. Biden has run for president a few times and has never caught on in his own party. He dropped out after Iowa this time around. And when we speak of foreign policy experience, in Biden's case we are really speaking of his serving many years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with precious little useful to show for it. Biden's greatest role was on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he trashed originalist nominees and promoted extreme activists. McCain & Company should hammer this. Biden has spent 30-years radicalizing the judiciary.

08/23 08:49 PM

Obama-Biden 2008 [Peter Wehner]:

I have now watched and read Senator Biden's speech in Springfield earlier today. From the perspective of the craft of speechwriting, it was quite a thing to behold.

In a speech of just over 16 minutes, Biden used, by my count, the phrase "ladies and gentlemen" 18 times. (Apparently "ladies and gentlemen" is to Biden what "my friends" is to Senator McCain). Biden's speech was filled with the predictable hackneyed phrases. We were told the American Dream is both "slipping away" and dropping off a cliff. And "the future keeps receding further and further and further away as your reach for your dreams." Biden feels things with "ever fiber of my being." Barack Obama possesses "steel in his spine." And so forth. Biden also made silly claims, such as this being the "last chance to reclaim the America we love, to restore America's soul."

But what was particularly (if unintentionally) humorous was Biden using the phrase "literally" at least seven different times — including several times when Biden meant to say figuratively. For example, Biden said we have an opportunity "literally to change the direction of the world." Really? Is Obama so all-powerful that he can actually make the world travel in a different direction? We also learned that on day one in the Senate Obama "literally" reached across the aisle and passed legislation to secure the world's deadliest weapons? Wow; Obama not only figuratively but literally reached across the aisle and, on day one, passed legislation? That would be impressive. It would also be impossible.

For those of us who have watched Biden over the years, especially during Judiciary Committee hearings, this is nothing new. But for the uninitiated, it is something to enjoy. As my 10-year-old son put it to me after hearing Biden's speech, "This is going to be like Get Smart."

Indeed. We'll be watching Biden closely — and loving it.

BIDEN. AWESOME!